An aether storm crossing our route delayed our departure by a few days, leaving us stuck on the ship with nothing to do. There was only so much sketching you could do, games you could play, or vids you could watch before you found yourself wanting to jump past an air barrier into the void just to experience something different.

  …Obviously I didn’t do that, but the thought crossed my mind.

  Eventually, though, the storm passed and we were able to leave. We headed along the same route as when we left Leval the previous time, passing through N48FL11, though I expected it would get a proper name once the new route was revealed, but this time, we took a standard exit from the system instead of the newly mapped one.

  From there we continued on to the Coral system, a minor system with a few mining operations and a small station, before heading for Hura.

  We stopped in P90B95 on the way to do some detailed asteroid surveying. While much less glamorous than discovering ancient terraformers and habitable planets, it was still important work.

  Once we finished, we continued to Hura, another system with just a small station, passing through on our way to Tortal, the location of the empire’s newest colony planet, only a few decades old. We stopped just long enough to pick up some food before departing for our next destination, H66Y71, a system on the way to the station at Galal.

  Instead of continuing on to Galal, we took a newly-mapped path that would lead to another colony world, Abos. This path had already been mapped and preliminary scans done, but we would be identifying the major currents in each of the systems along the new route and estimating where they led, with the hope that through this data could be analyzed to determine likely new routes between stars.

  A few weeks into this process, I was eating dinner after my shift when the call for general quarters rang out. I dropped my fork and stood up along with the others.

  “What could it be?” asked Ani as we hurried out of the mess.

  I shook my head. “There shouldn’t be anything on this route that would require this—the route isn’t public yet.”

  That was all the conversation we had time for as we needed to split up. I ran to the bridge to stand against the wall and wait. When I arrived, Lieutenant Domini, the third-shift junior bridge officer, was speaking.

  “—responding to hails.”

  “Try again, and run a detailed scan of the ship. We need to know what we’re working with.”

  “Aye, captain.”

  A few minutes passed in tense silence as we waited for the results.

  “Ma’am, they are still not responding. The scans so far show what appears to be a scout vessel like ours, but the details are wrong. It’s not imperial.”

  “And their heading?”

  “We’ll intercept in two hours if things don’t change.”

  “Keep hailing, and update me when you have more details from the scan.”

  “Aye, ma’am.”

  Twenty tense minutes later, we had results.

  “The ship appears to be Kaksholi.”

  The captain shook her head, as if in disappointment. “I expected as much. Estradari, compose a message to central command about the situation. Harris, prepare routes for both escape and attack. Domini, send the ship a message, both in Draconic and translated to Kaksholi, informing them that this is imperial space and they are trespassing, and command them to stand down.”

  ““Aye, captain.””

  For the next few minutes, I watched the captain flip screens rapidly, skimming them over briefly before moving.

  “Estradari, have we heard back from central command yet?”

  “No, ma’am. Still waiting.”

  “Let me know as soon as we do.”

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  It was another nearly ten minutes before they got back to us.

  “Ma’am, central command has instructed us that it is vital we do not reveal the route to Abos.”

  The captain drummed her fingers on the armrest for a few moments.

  “Harris, how are those escape routes looking?”

  “We should be able to escape, though they will definitely know where we went.”

  “We likely can’t outrun them, not well enough to hide our route.” She thought for a few seconds. “Harris, plot a backup escape route to exit current 3B.”

  My eyes went wide. 3B was an uncharted path—if we took it, we wouldn’t know how to get back to imperial space. Hopefully it wouldn’t come to that.

  “A-aye, ma’am,” the lieutenant replied, clearly nervous at the thought of being lost.

  “Domini, are they still not responding?”

  “Correct, they have not replied to hails or messages.”

  The captain drummed her fingers again. “Send another message in Draconic and Kaksholi informing them that we will fire if they do not respond.”

  It was nerve-wracking to be standing on the bridge with nothing to do but wait, knowing that we might soon be heading into battle.

  They never responded, even as we approached engagement distance, forcing the captain to make a decision—fight or flee?

  She went on the intercom. “Lieutenant Kilinas, have your crew fire a single round of force blasts at the enemy ship.”

  “Aye, ma’am,” we heard over the intercom. It was unlikely the shots would hit—we were still too far out for accurate aiming—but I was pretty sure they were intended as warning shots anyway.

  A couple minutes later, the captain asked, “Domini, did they respond in any way to our warning?”

  “No, ma’am. They are continuing on their intercept course.”

  She paused before replying. “Is it possible they are a derelict like before?”

  “Unlikely, ma’am. They seem to be responding properly to the local aether currents, unlike the derelict which seemed to be thrown around by them.”

  “Harris, is our escape route ready?”

  “Aye, ma’am.”

  The captain took a deep breath. “Tskitto, change course for exit 3B.”

  Everyone froze for a few seconds before Specialist Tskitto, the third-shift pilot, responded with a quiet “aye, ma’am.”

  As he changed our heading, the captain went on the intercom. “Crew, it is my solemn duty to inform you that I have made the decision to leave the system by an unmapped current. As members of the Imperial Navy, we have sworn an oath to protect the empire against all threats, and the Kaksholi scout vessel we have encountered represents a grave threat. We cannot risk leading them to our colonies or homeworlds. As such, we will be fleeing into the deep black again, this time without the benefit of a safe route home. Be ready, crew, for this will be a greater adventure than any of us expected. Thank you for your service, and may the stars be our guide back home.”

  The bridge was silent after that announcement. We all knew that there was a decent chance we would die out here—while we had supplies to last a few months, no one knew how long it would take us to find a path home.

  Ten minutes after we changed course, the captain asked for an update on the enemy’s position.

  “They’ve turned to follow us, ma’am, though they are moving a bit slower than we are.”

  “Are they moving slower than they were before?”

  “Aye, ma’am.”

  “They must be trying to leave enough of a gap to follow without risking attack. Looks like they do indeed intend to find our route home. We’ll have to figure out a way to deal with them eventually.”

  The captain gave it another hour with no change before canceling general quarters, allowing me to leave. Since I hadn’t finished my food, I stopped to grab a snack from the mess before heading to a lounge. I didn’t want to be alone with what had happened.

  “So, we’re heading into the deep black?” Isa asked as I entered the lounge. The others there looked at me intently, waiting for my response.

  I sighed. “Yes, the Kaksholi scout is following us, and the captain doesn’t want to risk a direct engagement, so we’re heading to an unmapped exit in the hopes that we can either escape or create a situation to give us the advantage in battle. Of course, that means nothing if we can’t find a route home, but we’ll have to cross that current when it comes.”

  “Talk about an adventure,” mumbled Jara, just loud enough for us to hear.

  Ani shrugged. “At least I got to fire a warning shot at them. That’s my first time shooting at a real target.”

  From there, we continued chatting, speculating about future battles and what the Kaksholi were up to. We conspicuously avoided any talk about our emotions as we left for the true unknown.

  Shortly before I headed to bed, the captain announced that we were entering the current that would take us out of mapped space. That brought everything to a halt, everyone staring at each other with wide eyes. It became even more real at that point.

  No one really had anything to say after that, and we all made our way to our bunks.

  When I woke up the next day, I was able to confirm that the Kaksholi ship had followed us into the current, probably assuming we knew the way home. Breakfast was quiet, and when I arrived on the bridge, I got more information.

  “Judging by our speed and the direction, we estimate it will take us five days to reach the next system, G07L64. That could be wrong, but it’s likely correct based on the data we have,” explained the XO. “We need to continue to observe the Kaksholi vessel and be ready for unexpected changes in the current that might cause us to exit sooner than expected.”

  ““Aye, ma’am,”” my supervisor and I agreed.

  The next two days passed with a tense absence of anything major happening, then, near the beginning of my shift, something happened.

  “XO, ma’am, there’s a message from central command,” I reported.

  “Thank you, ensign.” I watched as she read through the message, her brow furrowing more and more.

  “Voids-damned, I get it, but fuck.” The rest of us on the bridge stared at her, someone who rarely cursed like that. She gave a brief huff, then explained. “The captain requested a cruiser to come and take out the enemy ship, but the admiralty determined it wasn’t worth the risk to send one into the deep black. We’re on our own.”